There is no greater food holiday than Thanksgiving. Every family has their traditional sides that appear every year and which make their Turkey Day plate unique to them. So while most people will be eating Turkey with all the fixings, its those fixings that often represent a family's heritage and where they grew up.
This is what the traditional Martorana Thanksgiving plate looks like:
Baby peas cooked with onions, cranberry sauce, roasted pearl onions, stuffing, turnips.
This might look familiar to some and totally different to others but the one thing most likely consistent is the stuffing.
Now, the thing about stuffing is that although its synonymous with Thanksgiving, it is prepared in so many different ways depending on where you're from. In the south and Midwest its made with cornbread, in the northern coasts, oysters make an appearance. Some cook it in the bird, some out and some even dare to call it "dressing".
To me, traditional stuffing is made the way my grandmother made it - with white bread and pork sausage.
Incidentally, this recipe, which is so easy to make, is basically deconstructed Stuffed Bread.
Ingredients:
1 loaf un-sliced white bread
1 cup celery, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 roll pork sausage (like Jamestown or Jones brands)
1 egg
Rosemary, sage, thyme to taste
1 cup chicken broth (optional)
Cut the bread into small cubes and place in a bowl.
Cook the sausage in a pan until no longer pink.
Transfer to the bowl with the bread using a slotted spoon so that most of the oil remains in the pan.
Saute the celery and onions in the remaining oil and add to the bowl along with the egg and seasoning.
At this point, the mixture is ready to stuff into the bird. If not stuffing inside the turkey, add the chicken broth to give it some moisture.
Place into a casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
Fluff with a fork and its ready to serve.
If there is any stuffing leftover (not likely!) this is great (or even better) fried in oil for a day-after-Thanksgiving breakfast treat.
Hi, my name is katherine martorana and I am trying to piece together my family line, but have not been able to gather a lot of information. I ran across your blog and thought maybe our lines run together somewhere and we could swap information. I have a few screen shots of some family history work I have done I can send you where, from reading your blog, we may have some common ancestors. I know there are several martorana's that migrated to the states in the 1800's, so it might be a long shot, but worth a try. I can be reached at k_martorana[at]hotmail[dot]com. thanks!
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